Perspective

    Six weeks ago on a Sunday morning we woke up and discovered we had been robbed while we were sleeping.  It was traumatic and I haven't been doing much blogging since.  Caught on the surveillance camera, the guy entered the sliding glass door we thought was locked.  It is on a balcony overlooking the street.  He took all the electronics he could find (but not my friend's sewing machine--too heavy, I guess, and difficult to carry, and he probably can't sew).  The creepy part was that he was in our bedroom when he picked up my Kindle.  We never heard anything!  It was probably a blessing that we slept through it all.  We now have better protection on our door and window.  The Church security people and the one in charge of housing saw to it that the owner installed automatic "shutters" that roll down to cover the glass.
     As scary and awful as this event was, I have been aware this month of some even greater tragedies.  Even though it isn't fun or convenient, computers can be replaced without toooo much difficulty.  The family of a friend had a house burn completely--one that had been home to a large family and had many memories.  Nobody was hurt, fortunately.  Another friend has a handsome son who was in an accident and is now paralyzed.  He is a young married man and they expect twins shortly.  What a different life they are looking at than they were just a few months ago!  We visited an orphanage where there had been a fire and the kids lost what little they had--again, no loss of life.  We brought some things to them and their smiles were such rewards!  Last week the brakes on our car went out as Earl was out on an errand.  That could really have been terrible, but again we were blessed.  We were able to get rides with friends to places we needed to go and Earl used some skill he had practiced many years ago and drove the car to the area office with the emergency brake.  Even more of an adventure here in Santo Domingo!  The car is being repaired and all is well.  Some dental work I was going to need came sooner than expected when a big filling fell out.  I should never bite into soft cookies!  Fortunately, we had found a great dentist here (when a crown came off of my tooth).  He is bringing "especialistas" into his office to do two root canals and some oral surgery, then he will do crowns.  We have done the first part of that and so far, so good.  It will all cost MUCH less than in Kansas!  So glad we found him!
       I would show the picture of the gross fruit that the robber left on our table, but you don't want to see that.  Just know that we are now fine and life goes right along and we are clicking away on these birth records.